Start With Assets

One of my first direct-service roles was when I was in college, as a federal work-study job. To be clear, I loved this job! I worked in the Office of Community Service (conveniently next door to the best deli on campus), helping connect fellow students with volunteer opportunities. My focus (or “issue area”) was elementary education. Looking back, it’s been instructive on how I became susceptible to a pervasive, pernicious mindset in development and service work — deficit framing. By framing elementary education as an “issue area,” I, and my peers, immediately fell into a trap that there were only issues to be solved, rather than gifts to be leveraged.

Old habits die hard, traps work very well, and we all live in a smoggy society. To break old habits and set new patterns of thinking and doing, I often turn to asset mapping. Asset mapping has roots across sectors, from public health to education to public policy, and of course the intersections thereof! The common theme is creating deliberate time and space to plan and “map,” or somehow visualize the assets tangental to the organization.

To the right is a clip of what an asset map could look like. You could also literally map the resources on something physical, especially when thinking about referrals and partnerships. Regardless of the template or strategy used, an asset map is the beginning of a new set of strategies grounded in strength.

Once an asset map is created, is can continue as a living document, as well as the means following up on original plans. At Punkish Strategies, our templates plan for follow up and embed those actions into the regular work of the organization. The asset mapping process also dovetails with DEI initiatives, allowing DEI to live in every aspect of planning.

If your organization or school would like to engage in an asset mapping process, reach out! Looking at a problem and calling it a problem isn’t a solution — let’s create a new paradigm of finding strengths and letting that do the work!